Social Studies Level 8, Social
Organisation:

TONGA NEW ZEALAND 1950

DIFFERENT IDEAS ABOUT HOW SOCIETY SHOULD BE ORGANISED

Previous generation also in Parliament

Andrew Afeaki says:
I am talking of 1948-50 when our father going into Parliament was being
discussed. It was not new to the family. We had a great uncle, Siaki Lolohea,
who had been a Parliamentarian for Ha’apai. It was not a strange
proposition for the family. I believe historically, some have suggested,
the minor aristocracy in fact took over the Parliamentarians’ role
in representing the people of Tonga. Siaki was in fact one of the minor
aristocracy of his time. This is an assertion by other analysts about
the political process in Tonga. But it was not a foreign thing for the
family to think about. And he was a lawyer. Those who stood for Parliament
should be able to understand the law. What compelled him into it, no I’m
not aware of that.

Source: Photo by H Winklemann,in
1903, held in the Whitcombe Collection in Alexander Turnbull Library,
Wellington

A group of New Zealand Parliamentarians
visited the Pacific Islands under the leadership of C H Mills, and travelled
on the Union Steamship Company's SS Mapourika, pictured here in port at
Neiafu, Vava'u, Tonga